I bought the fuji mx 1200 to use with my class. When I check the pictures on the camera playback they look very good. When I get home and load them onto my pc the photos and color also look very clear, until I print them out. They appear to look grainy and the color doesn't look like the ones on the pc. I tried to use shiny paper but the results still aren't good. Any help would be appreciated. thanks

-- janet fried (rubaiyat@bellsouth.net), November 23, 1999

Answers

I used the official technical library to look up your camera, that's a PC Connection catalog, and it was confused on your camera. You can either take pic at 1280x960 or 1024x768 max. If you use this quality pic then your photo problem is your printer. I have a HP Deskjet 660 and it simply is too old to print good photos. I also have a Epson 1200 and the pic are outstanding. I have seen results from other new printers and they too will do a good job. So you may have to upgrade your printer or send your pics to a photo finisher.

Perhaps if you post more detail, you can get more help.

-- Dave Clark (daveclark@mail.com), November 24, 1999.

Merely using shiny paper is not enough, you have to tell the HP printer that it is shiny, so it prints different/better.

There is a setting in the printer driver -- before you print you tell the printer what size paper, i.e. 8.5 x 11, and what orientation, i.e. portrait or landscape, and if you look around you'll find a setting for "shiny paper" or "glossy paper" or some such.

Also there is a setting for affecting the colors; try different settings until the colors look right (but do the tests on ordinary paper so as not to waste money.)

It is surprising how good those old HPs are if you set up the settings correctly.

-bruce

-- bruce komusin (bkomusin@bigfoot.com), November 24, 1999.

Both of the above answers are correct, but there are a few more things you will need to be aware of.

1) What you see on your monitor and what you get on your printer will almost always be different because of the way each creates the color you see. Monitors use Red, green & blue to create color while printers use Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow, + black to create colors - the short of it is that you monitor is capable of displaying colors that your printer can't print, and you printer is capable of printing other colors your monitor can't display. While there is calibration software to get them closer, it is never 100% ISuspect the color problem is mostly related to an old printer or incorrect print drivers.

2) Ensure that you are printing your pictures at 150dpi or higher. Depending on the software you use to print you can set the settings. Your camera in its native format saves the picture at 72dpi, hense unless you scale the image down you are printing at 1/2 the minimum resolution.

Good luck

-- keith meinhold (navyboy@aol.com), December 08, 1999.